ARA, Industry organisations, Rail Express features, Rail industry news (Australia, New Zealand)

A look back at 2024

In 2024, the Australasian Railway Association marked several significant milestones in key policy areas and published five major research reports.

The Australasian Railway Association (ARA) released five separate reports this year, which included the harmonisation of rail standards, rollingstock decarbonisation, progressing gender equality and the economic benefits of rail to New Zealand.

Our advocacy has seen government increase investment in rail freight resilience and strengthen its focus on rail’s mode share. We have also seen the commencement of national type approval trials, greater engagement between government and industry on emissions reduction strategies, as well as increased support for local rail manufacturing with the opening of the Rail Collaboration Centre in Western Australia.

The ARA also released the 2024 Sustainability Strategy, a new Young Leaders Advisory Board Strategy (Y-LAB), welcomed new members to Y-LAB, and awarded six young rail professional scholarships at the ARA High Speed Rail Conference held in Sydney in October.

In 2025, our exclusive Future Leaders Program returns, designed to foster leadership skills for the next generation of rail professionals.

We are a founding partner of the new Champions of Change Rail Group and provided 13 scholarship opportunities in 2024-25 for women in the rail industry to undertake professional and leadership development courses.

The ARA also launched an Australian-first Professional Certificate in Rail in October, released three new professional development courses and collaborated with several universities to introduce rail-specific courses.

Danny Broad, Caroline Wilkie and Tim Parker attended the High Speed Rail Conference. IMAGE: ARA

Our new Member Handbook has been released and our membership has grown to more than 230 organisations across Australia and New Zealand.

Harmonisation

In collaboration with industry, the ARA was proud to launch the Harmonisation of Rail Standards Research Report in October. Together with government, the rail industry is working towards a national approach to harmonising standards and greater interoperability.

The report was jointly funded by the ARA, National Transport Commission (NTC), the Office of National Rail Industry Coordination (ONRIC) and the Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board (RISSB). It is a watershed moment for the rail industry, providing a body of evidence to progress this essential program of reform.

Prepared by GHD Advisory, the report proposes a national body to oversee the development of a National Rail Standards Harmonisation Strategy, in conjunction with industry, and identifies several key initiatives.

An Australian-first trial to adopt a nationally standardised approval system for rail and road projects is underway, following advocacy by the ARA. The trial between the New South Wales and Victorian governments means new products used in rail or road infrastructure projects must meet minimum regulatory, technical and safety standards to obtain approval across both jurisdictions.

We are encouraged to see other jurisdictions signing the memorandum of understanding (MOU) to implement the national type approval framework for a more harmonised approach.

Freight resilience

Following on from the release of the ARA-Freight on Rail Group landmark report Future of Freight in November 2023, the ARA made submissions to the Victorian Freight Policy Reform Program, the New South Wales Government’s Freight Policy Reform Program and the National Freight and Supply chain Strategy Review Report on the benefits of increased mode share of rail freight and the reforms required to achieve this.

It was very pleasing to see $1 billion in critical investment from the Australian Government and the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) to improve the resilience and reliability of essential national rail infrastructure in the Federal Budget 2024-25, following extensive advocacy by the ARA and rail freight stakeholders.

The ARA also attended a monthly roundtable, hosted by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources on national supply chain issues, following expansion to include the rail sector.

In August, the ARA attended the official opening of the Rail Collaboration Centre (RCC) at Karratha, which is operated by the CORE Innovation Hub, by Western Australia’s Minister for State and Industry Development, Jobs and Trade, Stephen Dawson.

The ARA, as foundation partner, convened the first meeting of the RCC Steering Committee, with representatives from Rio Tinto, BHP, Fortescue and Roy Hill. The collaboration will enable heavy haulers to progress supply chain localisation and local manufacturing, improve workforce availability and mobility, and support net zero targets.

We have also partnered with the NTC on a research project that seeks to better understand the lack of comprehensive public data on rail freight.

SUSTAINABILITY

The ARA has increased engagement with government and industry to develop policies to support emissions reduction, the adoption of alternative fuels and measures to improve sustainability performance.

The ARA took part in the consultation on the Federal Government’s Transport and Infrastructure Net Zero Consultation Roadmap in June and lodged a submission to the roadmap, highlighting the benefits of rail as an immediate-term solution for reducing emissions in the transport sector. This has been complemented by ongoing work with Infrastructure Net Zero.

A new report to define infrastructure net zero was released for consultation in October, and further research mapping net zero skills is nearing completion.

In an industry-first, the ARA also made a joint submission with the Public Transport Association Australia New Zealand (PTAANZ) and Roads Australia (RA), to the Roadmap following a National Decarbonisation Transport Summit the group held in Canberra in June.

The Harmonisation of Rail Standards launch earlier this year. IMAGE: ARA

In July, the ARA launched a critical path for the decarbonisation of rollingstock, supported by a supply chain capability framework with priority actions for industry and government to transition the rail industry.

The Critical Path to Decarbonise Australia’s Rail Rollingstock – Transitioning the rail industry and its supply chain makes several recommendations to support the availability, uptake and implementation of low and zero emission technologies to address traction emissions related to diesel-powered locomotives.

Australia must urgently develop a national strategy to decarbonise rail operations or risk losing a critical window to phase out diesel trains and meet net zero targets.

New Zealand

Almost 150 people from the rail sector attended the inaugural Australasian Railway Association New Zealand Rail Summit, held in Auckland in July. The Summit brought together key leaders and stakeholders from across industry and government involved in rail in New Zealand.

In 2024 the ARA also held the first Aotearoa Rail Committee meeting. We are focused on advocating for continued investment for improvements to the resilience and reliability of the rail network in New Zealand, increasing mode shift to get more people and freight on rail, as well as promoting rail’s decarbonisation and sustainability benefits.

The ARA launched the Benefit of Rail to New Zealand report which sh -owed that the rail industry generates $3.3 billion for the New Zealand economy, including almost $1 billion towards gross domestic product (GDP) and $2.3 billion in environmental, safety, health and reduced road congestion benefits.

The ARA is commissioning a new research report that will seek to analyse the future skills requirements for the New Zealand rail sector, as well as develop a deeper understanding of the capability in the sector and the capacity to fulfil the skills requirements.

Supply chain

Several rail infrastructure managers collaborated this year on a streamlined approach to the rollout of Project i-TRACE to their supply chain, by joining a pilot project to harmonise material master data to address data errors and reap the savings from reduced labour costs as a result of improved data collection and quality, infield traceability, and preventative maintenance.

The ARA has also developed a Supplier Capability Directory for the InnoTrans exhibition.

We have partnered with Austroads to expand the current Austroads roads and bridges national pre-qualification scheme to incorporate large rail infrastructure projects to realise efficiencies in tendering.

We have also worked collaboratively with infrastructure contractors and procurers to proposed streamlined approaches for acquiring management plans in tendering for infrastructure projects and held a roundtable on opportunities to improve systems integration and formed the national systems integration working group.

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

The ARA Professional Certificate in Rail, a flexible, industry-designed and recognised online learning program, begins in March 2025. The certificate covers key areas such as rail operations, infrastructure and maintenance, rail safety, supply chain management, and asset lifecycle planning and management. Each participant receives a Certificate of Completion and a Credly Badge that can be added to their LinkedIn profile.

In early 2024, the ARA implemented a new Learning Management System (LMS) called ARA Learning, and developed three new online courses – ARA Rail Operations, ARA Rollingstock and ARA Rail Infrastructure.

We have also developed a harmonised Safely Access the Rail Corridor (SARC) course for heavy haul members, which is the first major step towards having harmonised training across the industry, and our first microbite course, Respect in Rail.

In collaboration, Deakin University and the ARA have created two new micro credentials – Railway Engineering: Design and Railway Engineering: Maintenance. The ARA is working with the Edith Cowan University (ECU) to develop three new rail-related engineering electives (Mechanical, Civil and Electrical), which will be available in 2025. UTAS continues to offer the Diploma in Rail Track Engineering and Monash University has commenced delivering a Rail Engineering elective in July 2024 in its Civil Engineering undergraduate program.

The ARA established a revised and targeted multi-year strategy for the RIW Program to expand the user base and reach, system user interface and functionality, and harness data insights to focus and develop resources in critical areas of the industry.

Recent focus of national roles and development efforts in the electrical and signalling disciplines is almost complete and we have now entered the implementation phase where industry will see further productivity benefits from a reduced training burden.

GENDER DIVERSITY

With the support of National Women in Transport, the ARA launched Progressing gender equality in the Australasian rail sector: barriers and supportive practices in July, which was prepared by specialist consulting firm Diversity Partners to better understand the barriers and challenges hindering women’s entry, retention and progression in the rail industry.

It sets out 10 practical recommendations for organisations to improve gender diversity and inclusion and provides an important opportunity for organisations and leaders to review their practices, enhance their efforts and work collaboratively towards a more safe, sustainable and productive workforce and industry.

It followed the ARA Gender Diversity Data Report 2024, which is based on the Australian Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) survey and shows female participation in the rail workforce overall has risen from 24 to 28 per cent in 2022-23.

The ARA also matched 98 pairs in 2024 for the Women in Rail Mentoring Program and sponsored two men to participate in Women Rising’s Male Allies program as part of the ARA Women in Rail Strategy 2023-2026 to improve education to support increased inclusion for women in the industry.

In November, we announced the formation of the Champions of Change Rail Group, dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace as part of the global initiative Champions of Change Coalition.

The Rail Group consists of 10 members with senior leaders from passenger and freight rail operators and providers of integrated rail infrastructure networks and is dedicated to developing female leaders at every level and enabling more women to pursue careers in the rail industry.

Events

The ARA has had a huge year with record attendances at our events, a study tour to London and Paris and a 160-strong delegation to InnoTrans in Berlin, as well as sell-out events across the country.

We have held more than 20 events including networking lunches and dinners, webinars and conferences, with more than 9000 people attending overall including 3,000 to AusRAIL 2024. This follows a record attendance for AusRAIL PLUS 2023 – which also won NSW Event of the Year Award by the Meeting and Events Association.

Our conferences held in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand covered key topics for rail, including sustainability, rail freight, people and culture, high-speed rail and light rail.

We also held several new conferences, including the ARA Light Rail Conference, ARA High Speed Rail Conference and the inaugural New Zealand Rail Summit, which was followed by the ARA Annual New Zealand Rail Industry Dinner.

We also introduced the End of Year Rail Industry Lunch, held in New South Wales and Victoria, and the Victorian and New South Wales Young Rail Professionals Ball.

This year, we kicked off two new webinar series focusing on Passenger Rail and Sustainability, and held several other webinars on the circular economy, gender diversity, the Austrade Vietnam Market, successful pitching, supply chain (Supplier Spotlight) and procurement and tendering (Meet the Buyer).

In 2025, we are focused on continuing to deliver networking events for members – with dinners and lunches to take place in major cities, as well as in Newcastle for the first time.

Our largest AusRAIL ever had over 120 exhibitors and an impressive lineup of more than 100 local and international speakers, two site tours to the Gold Coast Light Rail Depot Tour and the Queensland Train Manufacturing Program (QTMP) and the inaugural AusRAIL 2024 TrackSAFE Charity Golf Day.

The ARA also hosted about 600 people at the annual ARI Awards night which recognises individuals, organisations and rail projects who have excelled in the industry.